Housing Market, Interest Rate | featured news

To quell the latest financial crisis, the Federal Reserve smashed interest rates to the floor by buying bonds with money it effectively prints. Since 2008 assets on the Fed’s balance sheet, including those bonds, have tripled, to $3 trillion. (Hey, people needed encouragement, and low rates are encouraging.) The mixed results: Entrepreneurs and homeowners got some relief, while savers got whacked along with the value of the U.S. dollar. Starving for yield, investors piled into stocks, pushing the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its all-time high, absent inflation.

The average U.S. rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage touched its record low this week and the rate on 15-year mortgage hit a new record.

Record-low interest rates are out of reach for many homeowners, and a big reason is that millions are underwater. Obama and others are trying to assist them. U.S. interest rates are at rock-bottom levels, but that's not helping most Americans with mortgages.

The Obama administration is considering a program to let millions of homeowners refinance at today’s rates.

Applications for home mortgages surged last week, racking up the biggest increase in four months on a flood of refinancing demand as interest rates remained low, an industry group said on Wednesday.

Federal subsidies, low interest rates, falling home prices--find out how to get on board before these benefits run out.

Rates for 30-year home loans rose above the 5 percent threshold for the first time in three weeks, but remained near historically low levels....

U.S. mortgage applications fell last week despite the lowest loan rates in four months, the Mortgage Bankers Association said.

Rates can fall to 2%--if you know how to play the game.